-=> Quoting Regina Finan to Charity Ayuso-onore <=-
 
 -=> Quoting Charity Ayuso-Onore to Regina Finan <=-
 
 CA> Hi Regina,
 
 CA> Two of my children were in special education when they were in the
 CA> school system.  They were not making any progress and seemed to be
 CA> stuck there.  At first I did everything possible to work with the
 CA> teachers and principals.
 RF> My 12 year old is ADD and the school system he was in at first was
 RF> really good with him.  Later we moved to another one and I couldn't
 RF> get him help. His grades went from A's and B's to D's and E's.  I also
 RF> hated the social problems that seemed to plague kids in the
 RF> educational system.  I am fairly religious and hearing all the garbage
 RF> pour out of my kids mouth was the last straw.  My Jonathon had a low
 RF> IQ but his achievement was higher.  I couldn't get the school system
 RF> to understand that it was so because I worked with him 3-4 hours a day
 RF> and all weekend.  I have 2 other kids at home that needed help too.  I
 RF> figured if I was spending this much time on my kids why were they
 RF> going to public school?  I was doing most of the teaching anyway. I
 RF> pulled them out. 
Sounds really familiar.  :)
 RF> I was very very active in school.  My kids were in special clubs such
 RF> as the science clubs.  I went to any type of class I could and spent
 RF> time in their classrooms and field trips.  I was the parent that
 RF> sometimes was dreaded in school because I knew almost everything that
 RF> was going on and if one thing went wrong on was at their door.  I also
 RF> was respected and when my Jeremy started showing signs of ODD and some
 RF> violent behavior they were very understanding and he never got
 RF> suspended.  There was only one bad incident and the other child
 RF> started it all.   
 It goes to show that if a parent is truly interested and _can_ follow
 through, differences can be made.
 CA> Their prognosis for them was; they would probably not progress past
 CA> third grade level academics. This was too much.  I quit my regular
 CA> job, starting free lance work by contract and started teaching my
 kids CA> at home.
 RF> Jonathon was 2 years behind but is progressing nicely now.  Jeremy is
 RF> not really behind but has trouble with concentration, spelling and
 RF> problem solving.  Math and science are my children's strong points.
You can use this to your advantge. :)
 
 CA> The male 22yrs is now a 3.0 student (with learning disabilities) but a
 CA> 3.0 average!  He works as a security guard at a local college and is
 CA> in the ministry (has been since 14yrs. old) and majoring in law
 CA> enforcement.  In short he has a life.  The 23yr old (female) has
 CA> graduated with honors and her AA degree.  She is now attending a
 CA> university and majoring in social work and psychology.
 RF> Every time I see these types of posts it is so encouraging.
 
Great!  I'm sure you and your children will do well.  You sound like you
are committed to this and that is the most important facet of
homeschooling.
 CA> My teenager is an accelerated student.  I have learned to ride on
 CA> roller blades (academically) to keep up with her. The hardest thing is
 CA> to stay ahead of her to keep her stimulated and interested.  She's a
 CA> independent student and a good learner.  I miss having more than one
 CA> student at a time but it works out ok.
 RF> I have a very brite child too.  Although she is a perfectionist and
 RF> once I challenge her at something all heck breaks loose.  She is also
 RF> a pessimist .  This doesn't help.  But she is doing good.  An
 RF> assigment of one page takes her little time and if I ask for a story
 RF> will will write 3 or 5 pages.  Like an energized bunny she loves to
 RF> talk so writing stories is very easy for her.
 
That was the same story for my 23 yr old.  She was labeled as slow.  She
was not slow; she just could not hand in a sloppy paper.  During tests
and hand in compostions if she had to erase an error she would erase
until there was nothing visible etc.  I used this as a tool for her and
helped her see that she was an individual who paid attention to detail.
 CA> I work with parents who homeschool and spear head a local support
 CA> group. I have a website - http://www.home.inreach.com/drciao with more
 CA> info. It's under IHTLA; The International Home Teaching & Learning
 CA> Association.  We travel overseas as well as in the USA for field trips
 CA> that are related to academics etc.  Some field trips are retreats and
 CA> some just plain old one day fun outings.  :)
 RF> When we were studying environments in science we took walks and
 RF> talked about trees, houses and all the things around us.  My kids
 RF> loved it.  They discovered things that they had always took for
 RF> granted.  And while we walked they picked up different kinds of
 RF> leaves. 
 I miss those times with my kids when they were a younger.  :)
 CA> Well, I joined this echo to share whatever expertise I thought would
 CA> be helpful to anyone out there and to simply converse about anything. 
 CA> I know I am never to young (tee hee) to learn and there is so much to
 CA> keep up with.
 RF> Thats great.  I have only been homeschooling for a year so I know you
 RF> probably have seen and done more than me.  
I'll be happy to share any knowledge I have learned in these past years.
Feel free to write to me anytime.
 CA> Well, I've really enjoyed this talk.  Don't you just love BBSing.  You
 CA> can talk a streak and never be interrupted.  :)
 RF> Yep.  Without my messages I would go nuts.
 RF> Regina
Hang in there Regina.  It gets easier as they get older. :)
 RF> -!-
 RF>  ! Origin: Nite Lite BBS (1:2410/534)
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